Michiganand Tennessee, to Baylor's football team post-scandal, here are the 10 things to watch from August through January.
10. College football experiments with collaborative replay. Instant replay can be an important part of college football. It can also be controversial, especially when targeting is involved. Starting this season, though, the sport is experimenting with a "collaborative approach" to instant replay. The experiment is summarized by the National Football Foundation as follows:
This means that the replay official will be in communication with observers who are watching the game on television at a site other than the instant replay booth. The replay official will be in consultation with the remote observers while reviewing a play. The purpose is to allow for a second observer in addition to this replay official to assist in making the decisions about a review.
Not every conference has to use collaborative replay, but if the experiment proves successful, this could be the future of replay in college football. When it comes to the crossroads of getting the correct call on the field and disrupting the rhythm of the game, collaborative replay is something to watch closely.
9. Is Tennessee finally back? Yes, this question feels repetitive. No, this is not the same ol' Vols preseason hype. As Bleacher Report's SEC lead writer Barrett Sallee has pointed out, Tennessee isn't actually the king of offseason puffery. That has changed this year, though, with the Vols being named as the preseason SEC East champs.
Can they live up to the high bar that's been set? An appearance in Atlanta would validate the direction of the program and there's more than enough talent to get the job done. Couple that with a down year for the East and this should be Tennessee's division to lose. If -- somehow, some way -- Tennessee doesn't win the East, it could be the biggest missed opportunity of the year. How coach Butch Jones would survive that is beyond me.
8. Clemson's offense has a chance to be historically great. If you like points, Clemson should be your adopted team of choice because the Tigers are going to be nearly unstoppable. The offense that put up 38.5 points per game a season ago returns basically intact -- plus it gets receiver Mike Williams back from a neck injury that knocked him out for all of last year. It's not just experience Clemson has, though. It's talent, too. With Williams, quarterback Deshaun Watson; running back Wayne Gallman; receivers Artavis Scott, Deon Cain and Ray-Ray McCloud; tight end Jordan Leggett and offensive lineman Mitch Hyatt, there are a lot of future pros on this unit.
The 2013 Florida State Seminoles hold the single-season FBS record with 723 points. At most -- assuming Clemson plays only 13 games -- the Tigers need 55.7 points per game to top that. If preseason expectations are realized, that number goes down to 48.3. With this offense, achieving those gaudy numbers are certainly possible.
7. The topsy-turvy coaching landscape. The days of the long-time head coach in college football are nearly at an end. The likes of Bob Stoops, who is entering his 18th season with Oklahoma, are few and far between. Realistically, a nice tenure at one stop is somewhere between 6-9 years.
Some big-name coaches are starting their first years at new locations. Mark Richt is at Miami (FL) following a long stint at Georgia. Bronco Mendenhall is at Virginia after several years with BYU. Former NFL coach Lovie Smith is with Illinois. Even at the assistant level, there are big acquisitions. Brady Hoke is now the defensive coordinator at Oregonwhile Greg Schiano holds the same title at Ohio State. Meanwhile, as CBS Sports' own Jon Solomon wrote previously, the SEC has its most inexperienced group of head coaches in 52 years.
6. Who will the Big 12 invite? (Will it invite anyone at all?) After what feels like an infinite debate, the Big 12 is finally expanding ... maybe ... depending on what ESPN and Fox Sports have to say. Who makes the cut? BYU? Houston? Cincinnati? Memphis? UConn? Pick two. Or four. If the conference's TV partners are going to fight about extending their deal, they're all the same choice.
The conference plans on wrapping up this decision process before the start of the season, but who knows if it will. You know what they say: Time is a flat circle. You are reborn, but into the same life that you've always been born into. Everything that has happened will happen again. It was all just a dream, a dream that you had about being a Power Five conference.
10. College football experiments with collaborative replay. Instant replay can be an important part of college football. It can also be controversial, especially when targeting is involved. Starting this season, though, the sport is experimenting with a "collaborative approach" to instant replay. The experiment is summarized by the National Football Foundation as follows:
This means that the replay official will be in communication with observers who are watching the game on television at a site other than the instant replay booth. The replay official will be in consultation with the remote observers while reviewing a play. The purpose is to allow for a second observer in addition to this replay official to assist in making the decisions about a review.
Not every conference has to use collaborative replay, but if the experiment proves successful, this could be the future of replay in college football. When it comes to the crossroads of getting the correct call on the field and disrupting the rhythm of the game, collaborative replay is something to watch closely.
9. Is Tennessee finally back? Yes, this question feels repetitive. No, this is not the same ol' Vols preseason hype. As Bleacher Report's SEC lead writer Barrett Sallee has pointed out, Tennessee isn't actually the king of offseason puffery. That has changed this year, though, with the Vols being named as the preseason SEC East champs.
Can they live up to the high bar that's been set? An appearance in Atlanta would validate the direction of the program and there's more than enough talent to get the job done. Couple that with a down year for the East and this should be Tennessee's division to lose. If -- somehow, some way -- Tennessee doesn't win the East, it could be the biggest missed opportunity of the year. How coach Butch Jones would survive that is beyond me.
8. Clemson's offense has a chance to be historically great. If you like points, Clemson should be your adopted team of choice because the Tigers are going to be nearly unstoppable. The offense that put up 38.5 points per game a season ago returns basically intact -- plus it gets receiver Mike Williams back from a neck injury that knocked him out for all of last year. It's not just experience Clemson has, though. It's talent, too. With Williams, quarterback Deshaun Watson; running back Wayne Gallman; receivers Artavis Scott, Deon Cain and Ray-Ray McCloud; tight end Jordan Leggett and offensive lineman Mitch Hyatt, there are a lot of future pros on this unit.
The 2013 Florida State Seminoles hold the single-season FBS record with 723 points. At most -- assuming Clemson plays only 13 games -- the Tigers need 55.7 points per game to top that. If preseason expectations are realized, that number goes down to 48.3. With this offense, achieving those gaudy numbers are certainly possible.
7. The topsy-turvy coaching landscape. The days of the long-time head coach in college football are nearly at an end. The likes of Bob Stoops, who is entering his 18th season with Oklahoma, are few and far between. Realistically, a nice tenure at one stop is somewhere between 6-9 years.
Some big-name coaches are starting their first years at new locations. Mark Richt is at Miami (FL) following a long stint at Georgia. Bronco Mendenhall is at Virginia after several years with BYU. Former NFL coach Lovie Smith is with Illinois. Even at the assistant level, there are big acquisitions. Brady Hoke is now the defensive coordinator at Oregonwhile Greg Schiano holds the same title at Ohio State. Meanwhile, as CBS Sports' own Jon Solomon wrote previously, the SEC has its most inexperienced group of head coaches in 52 years.
6. Who will the Big 12 invite? (Will it invite anyone at all?) After what feels like an infinite debate, the Big 12 is finally expanding ... maybe ... depending on what ESPN and Fox Sports have to say. Who makes the cut? BYU? Houston? Cincinnati? Memphis? UConn? Pick two. Or four. If the conference's TV partners are going to fight about extending their deal, they're all the same choice.
The conference plans on wrapping up this decision process before the start of the season, but who knows if it will. You know what they say: Time is a flat circle. You are reborn, but into the same life that you've always been born into. Everything that has happened will happen again. It was all just a dream, a dream that you had about being a Power Five conference.
